The funds budgeted for the opening of three new embassies of Moldova – in Ghana, Argentina and India – will be redirected for other expenses, under a State Budget correction amendment approved by Parliament in the first reading today.

The measure cuts the expenses for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration by a total by 22.7 million lei, including 11.7 million lei initially planned for setting up the embassies.

Minister of Finance Natalia Gavrilița told Parliament’s plenary sitting that each authority had been asked to present proposals for reducing or increasing expenditure, depending on the budget implementation in the first six months and the new priorities.

Addressing concerns regarding the payment of salaries for public sector employees, in the context of the new wage law, the minister said that this law was adopted in the absence of detailed analysis on how this would impact the Budget.

“It has already cost us more than 1.234 billion lei. Over what was planned. Here begins the discussion about the budget hole we inherited”, the minister said. Natalia Gavrilița says that EU assistance, of over 1.3 billion lei, will be directed to cover personnel costs.

Even if expenses are foreseen to decrease by 1.327 billion lei under the budget correction amendment, so are revenues – by 1.492 billion lei, resulting in a deficit larger by 164 million lei. As a share of GDP, the deficit of the State Budget will constitute 2.75%.

If the amendment is signed into law, the 2019 State Budget will have revenues of 40,633,531,500 lei, expenses of 46,336,817,600 lei, and a deficit of 5,703,286,100 lei.

The amendment was endorsed by the majority of MPs attending. According to Speaker Zinaida Greceanîi, an extraordinary meeting of the legislature will be organized within about ten days, at which the bill will be debated in the second reading.